Big Little Flan

Dave Folan's personal blog and pet projects.

Résumé

Contact

Please use the comment system below to leave any comments or questions about my résumé

Career Profile

Confident and prepared to presentideas to a number of people when needed: whilst on industrial placement I met with clients to discuss work and present concepts and whilst working for Time Out I would regularly present the team show case at the end of a sprint as well as lead stand up scrum meetings each day.

Good leadership and team working qualities to guide teams of developers to meet client deadlines, gained from my experiences both in industry and during my studies.

Experienced working with a number of development techniques and design patterns most recently working in the agile development methodology.

Areas of Expertise

Very experienced Windows operator with a good understanding of UNIX commands for both Sun and Linux systems.

Good knowledge of XHTML, CSS and dynamic web pages developed using PHP, Perl, JavaScript, MySQL (Databases 2 and Time Out)
and PostgreSQL (Industrial placement).

I also have experience using XML, XSLT and RSS in order to deliver data in a number of formats, most recently used to develop a Time Out Critics Choice widget for the Yahoo UK home page.

Microsoft Office advanced user and competent with a number Internet and E-mail applications.

Two year’s experience of C (Programming) and one years experience of Java development within the Eclipse IDE (Object Orientated Software Development).

I have a number of years experience studying and developing usable and accessible user interfaces (Human Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering) for both web based and mobile systems.

Education

Bournemouth University, Poole

2:1 in Computing BSc (Hons) 2004 – 2008

Fourth year

Internet Application Development

68.20 (2:1)

Data Management

65.00 (2:1)

Usability Engineering

60.40 (2:1)

Networks and Security

66.90 (2:1)

Individual Project: “A Study of the Development Process and Usability of a Web-Based System”

Completed team projects

The Integrated Assignment required that I worked as part of a team of four for two, two-week projects during my second year at university. After forming the requirements and presenting our proposal, we built the product around our specification for the final sales pitch and hand-in. The team we assembled for the first project came first; our second, randomly-assembled team came third.

Queen Mary’s College, Basingstoke

2001-2003

A level

Mathematics

E

Computing

C

Electronics

C

AS level

Business Studies

B

Bishop Challoner Secondary School, Basingstoke

1996 – 2001

Career History

Web Developer, August 2009 – Present

Nixon Design are one of the most respected design agencies in the South West and cater to a range of clients. Nixon deliver a range of CMS options including Adobe Contribute sites, Custom Zend Framework solutions, Magento installations and Expression Engine sites.

Web Developer, July 2008 – August 2009

Time Out develops in a LAMP environment using the PHP Symfony framework. One of my main tasks has been to redevelop the sites HTML and CSS structure from scratch for the sites new layout which can currently be seen in use on the travel home section of the site. This new structure and CSS package is now being used as the basis for all future development, including the main Time Out London site, as well as being sent out to all international franchises, for example Time Out Abu Dhabi, to be used as the basis of new sites. One role at Time Out is to send out the weekly newsletter to a distribution of around 130,000 people using the Campaign Commander email system. Most recently I have developed the Twitter API interface to be used for future integration into the site.

Industrial Placement, Web Developer, July 2006 – September 2007

Whilst at Clock I developed web systems in a Linux, Apache, PostgreSQL and PHP environment using a custom built framework and developing a range of systems, both on my own and as part of a multidisciplinary team. During this placement I was able to gain experience in a number of aspects of web development including meeting with clients to discuss requirements, offer training with any admin systems and to demonstrate completed systems.

HTML Converter, August 2005 – October 2005

With SPOCE I built HTML web pages from PowerPoint slide designs for an E-Learning system for Senior Managers. For this job I worked from home and sent and received my work via e-mail.

Scottish and Southern Electric, Basingstoke

Data entry clerk, April 2004 – September 2004

In this job I would book customers appointments for repairs and meter installations. Whilst working with this company I learnt how to function in an office environment as part of a close team with strict deadlines and targets.

Positions of Responsibility

Domain and email administrator

As well as my other roles at Clock during my placement year I also took on this position, which involved administrating over five-hundred domain names and a large number of email accounts.

Seminar Group and Course Representative

As a representative of my group and course, I ensured that information delegated to me by tutors was sent to my course mates. Any queries or problems from my course mates were discussed with tutors or discussed in meetings, where other issues aside from the course were also aired.

President of Bournemouth University Poker Society

In my first year at Bournemouth University I co-founded the Poker society with a group of friends; we had to put together some society guidelines and rules for the society. As president I was also in charge of organising meetings and society events, including bi-monthly poker games.

Interests

Extreme sports

I enjoy to power kite and long board with friends, we regularly travel to new areas of the country to take advantage of the differing terrains and environments that make the sport so interesting.

Technology

I like to read up on new technologies and web development trends and where possible to try out and sample these new technologies.